A very diverse pop punk/hardcore tour package headlined by The Story So Far and Stick to Your Guns rolled into the Royale in Boston last night. Though two very different styles of music were on display, the fun and passion of both scenes were fully felt throughout the night.
Heart to Heart kicked things off. I hadn't heard these guys before, but I had heard a lot of good things about them leading into the show. They're kind of an oddball mix of pop punk and hardcore, but neither end of the style is done all that well. The screaming is pretty underwhelming and the singing ranges from decent to well below average (they have 3 different vocalists.) However, they do have their fair share of cool melodies and their lead singer is hilarious. I also have to give them props for the inspiration of closing song "Forty Forty Twenty", which details the struggle of the singer's old friend that he reconnected with two years ago after not seeing her since high school. Six months after the death of her husband in Afghanistan, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer that could only be removed via surgery. The title of the song documents her odds which were 40% they couldn't remove the tumor, 40% successful surgery and 20% she dies on the operating table (her surgery ended up being successful.) When the singer was telling this story to the crowd, you could hear the emotion in his voice and how deeply this woman's situation affected him as a person. Heart to Heart definitely had their moments, but ultimately didn't make too much of an impression on me.
Rotting Out was up next. This marked my second time seeing them and further cemented why they are one of my favorite hardcore bands at the moment. In a live environment, these guys are just pure chaos. Each and every song they played has this ferocious bite to it that can't be ignored. Their music is just so angry, fast, violent and energetic that you can't help but move around and feel every ounce of the rage that consumes them. Making that feeling of anger all the more present was the banter the vocalist had in-between songs. This is a band that shares the same no bullshit agenda of the great hardcore bands of the past. They don't like how a lot of things work in the world yet still have an underlying message of loyalty and surrounding yourself with the right people that actually care about you. Even though they were only the second band to perform, Rotting Out stole the show early and was the clear-cut best performance of the night.
Such Gold hit the stage next. What stuck out about them is the fact they were the only band not from California on the bill (They hail from Rochester, New York.) In terms of their actual performance, they were just slightly above average in my eyes. The most joy their set brought me was watching their bassist's wildly out-of-sync headbanging the entire time they were playing. Their lead vocalist's voice was kind of grating and quite a few of the songs sounded pretty much exactly the same. They were certainly tight musically (especially considering their drummer left the tour right before this show to fill-in for Trash Talk and the drummer from Stick to Your Guns had only 3 hours to learn their set) and they had a couple of really catchy moments, they just they really click with me on the whole.
Stick to Your Guns was up next. Though they've played at numerous shows I've attended in the past, this was my first time seeing them. Their studio material is just alright to me, but as I expected, these guys excel in a live setting. They have a ton of breakdowns and a vast majority of them were really well-timed and really hit hard. There is also enough melody to go with the raw emotion and constant breakdowns to separate them from their peers in the genre. Making their set all the more enjoyable was the energy from the crowd and the band. The band was going off-the-walls the entire time and the crowd reciprocated that by screaming/singing all the lyrics at the top of their lungs and keeping the pits consistently active. Stick to Your Guns certainly won't be joining my list of favorite bands, but they are damn good at what they do and put on a pretty killer live show.
The reason myself and a majority of the sold out crowd attended, The Story So Far, closed out the evening. I was stoked to get to see them again after missing them at Warped Tour this past summer due to a set conflict with The Black Dahlia Murder. While not being quite as sharp as when I saw them on the Glamour Kills Tour last year, they still put on a fun show. The setlist was evenly divided between their two full-length albums Under Soil and Dirt and What You Don't See. Seeing the material from What You Don't See live made me grow a greater appreciation for that record. I had previously considered it one of the most disappointing albums of 2013 (a lot of that has to do with how high of a regard I hold Under Soil and Dirt in,) now I fully expect to form a more favorable opinion on it after this performance. What really amazed the most about this performance was how big they've gotten in such a short period of time. It was only a year and a half ago that they were playing the same room billed below The Wonder Years, Polar Bear Club and Transit. Now they're headlining and selling out the same venue garnering the same level of enthusiasm and crowd participation as The Wonder Years has at their shows. The Story So Far is one of the most important bands in pop punk right now and the reception they got last night majorly drives that point home. The blend of pop punk and hardcore made for a really fun evening that wrapped up this epic string of shows I've attended in the past month quite nicely.
Scores:
Heart to Heart 6.5/10
Rotting Out 8.5/10
Such Gold 6/10
Stick to Your Guns 8/10
The Story So Far 8/10
Setlists:
Heart to Heart included:
In Case You Haven't Noticed
Thanks for Nothing
Your Name Here
Forty Forty Twenty
Rotting Out:
Street Prowl
Suicide King
Blade of Rust
The Shoot Out
S.B.T.S
Iron-Jawed Angel
No Clue
Goddamn
Laugh Now, Die Later
Stick to Your Guns ( jacked from setlist.fm):
Against Them All
Such Pain
Bringing You Down
Empty Heads
Diamond
We Still Believe
The Bond
D(I Am)ond
What Goes Around
Amber
The Story So Far:
Right Here
States and Minds
Roam
Daughters
Stifled
Things I Can't Change
Four Years
680 South
Closure
The Glass
All Wrong
Bad Luck
Empty Space
Quicksand
Encore:
High Regard
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